Tag: notes

you shut your mouth!

*The bathrooms in many of the bars have a peculiar feature: actual keys in the doors to the stalls. I kept thinking Wow! How long till those were stolen if this was america!

*After our first day of walking around, Justin & couldn’t help but notice the blinding pain in various parts of our bodies. For Justin it was the ankles, shins, neck, and shoulders. For me it was the balls of the feet, the calves, and the lower back. Even better was when we realized our ibuprofen was
at least 3 years expired, and to top it off, our room was the 4th floor, and there are no elevators. Absinthe helps in the numbing of pain.

*Justin’s excellent black leather trench-coat was starting to fall apart and is so heavy that it’s hurting his shoulders after wearing it for so may days in a row. So we went to get him a new jacket, and we noticed the weirdest thing: the zipper on separating zippers is on the other side of the jacket. This may not seem like a big deal, but try next time you zip up something: you have become accustomed to holding the zipper with the left hand and zipping up with the right hand. Trying to switch is like trying to tie your shoelaces the other direction. Possible, but really frustrating. He bought a jacket with buttons.

*When you vacation to a place that has different foods than you are used to, your digestive system is a bit confused and sometimes gets really pissed off at you, and it’s not very subtle about it or care about the timing of it all.

* When walking around in very cold weather I have leggings on underneath my jeans. After using the restroom I need to reassemble my layers to go back outside. I am also wearing a fully buttoned and tied leather trench-coat and thick gloves. Should, upon hours of walking and hundreds of stairs, I need to readjust my underwear that has shifted from one place to another, there is no subtle way to do so; not with gloves, thick jacket and 2 layers of pants. One simply needs to decide to ignore it or find a blunt way to solve it.

*The bathroom stalls are very small in some bars. They even smaller when you need to disrobe 15 lbs of outer layers to use the bathroom and you don’t know what to do with said 15 lbs of jackets, hat, and purse. Once I went into a stall ~4’ wide. There was a toilette and a coiled radiator heater in it. The radiator was hot to the touch and had a roll of toilette paper sitting on it, heating up (I moved it). Since the door opened inward to the stall, the first thing I encountered was a hot radiator. So I kinda stepped past it onto the toilette, closed the door and stepped down onto the remaining 1 sq. ft area of floor across from the radiator. Then I shed my outer layers and dropped them at my feet onto the square of floor. Then I tried to undo my pants, turn, & land bare-bummed on the toilette instead of the radiator. I succeeded, thank all gods. Sitting there was, well, toasty: knees and ankles pinned together because there was no room over by Mount Jacket and I wanted to avoid Mr. Radiator. There is the problem, however, of wiping. You cannot do so and keep your ankles and knees pinned together. I kinda shifted sideways, sorta putting my feet on the jacket pile and to door, careful not to knock out the key out of the keyhole. I’m doing this while eyeing the 1/2” gap between my bare upper thigh and the radiator. Then, basically, I had to reverse the entire operation to become clothes and leave the stall.

let’s go paint the town!!

No Thank You..

We didn’t go see a black light version of the Broadway musical Cats. We kinda wanted to, cuz, dude! Black Light Version of Cats! And we kinda had plans to go see it, but then 45 minutes before the show we were in our hotel room and I said “Ok- lemme know when this gets annoying” and I started singing and repeating “OH NOW Never was there Ever a CAT so clever as Magical Mister Mestopholes” for about 4 rounds until Justin cut me off and said “Yeah, we’re not seeing Cats.

We had planed on seeing the Historical Fantasy Show, which we got a brochure for on the street. “Daily Shows” apparently means only Friday & Saturday. So, we were going to go see that on our anniversary on Tuesday, but alas, it didn’t happen. Brochure said something like Come eat the way that the medieval people did: with their hands! as you watch sword fighting, bundle up in firs, watch beautiful ladies dance and maybe ever get your fortune told by a palm reader! It sounded cheesy and kinda fun. Oh well… maybe a different time we’re in Prague on a Friday or Saturday.

We did not go ride in the horse drawn carriages. Although the horse are quite cute, they do smell like horse, and the horses in Prague were like us: rather gassy at times. All those dumplings and bacon wrapped pork medallions filled with camembert cheese in a onion and mushroom sauce. So good…

I love a java jive and it loves me..

On the menu’s here there is a something something which is very helpful. The menu is in its basic column format, but they add the size of the food.

So, when ordering coffee (kava) I was trying to decide between a cafe latte or a double espresso, but then saw that for nearly the same price as a double espresso I could get 2 cafe lattes, which were each physically larger, thus giving me more coffee goodness in my tummy! And that’s exactly what I did.

Very helpful.

If you’re in Prague, go eat at U Zlate Studny loacted in the cellar Karlova 3, Praha 1, it was so amazing and very well priced. Yummy!!

Nemluvin cesky (I don’t speak Czech..)

*Justin made up these little cards with 25 Czech phrases and words and how to pronounce them, laminated them, and we carry them around. They are Awesome! Here’s the thing: even if I can say the phrases on the card just fine, I may run into the problem that a Czech person may then think I can speak Czech fluently and start speaking quickly to me. So what I like to do is to read the phrases off the card in an obvious manner with either a pained or hopeful look on my face. That conveys to them that really I know diddly squat in regards to the Czech language, but that I am trying!

*Flying to Prague on Lufthansa airlines (loof-THAHN-za)
instructions are in English (GB for Great Britain) and German (DE for Deutche):
GB: Life Vest Under Your Seat
DE: Schwimmweste Unter Ihrem Sitz

*There are some phrases you need to know to stay polite: Please, Thank You, You’re Welcome…. When a waiter/ess takes away your plate it’s kind to give a quick ‘thank you’. The problem for me is this: I want to convey that I appreciate their help, but “thank you” in Czech is “Dekuji” pronounced DICK-kwee. So, to me in my English-thinking mind, it sounds like every time someone is nice I respond with “dickweed.” It’s as if someone opens a door for you and in return you call them a jackass. So, I just smile really big each time I say “Dick-kwee”

*Some waiter/esses here are super nice and some super curt and give the impression that they are pissed off that there are tourists in their city. Our first night there, though, one complimented Justin on his pronunciation of “The bill, please” at the end of dinner. That made Justin happy.
(CZ = Czech) GB: The Bill, Please
CZ: Za Platim, Prosim
(zah PLAH-tim, PRO-seem)

* In Czech, the language is
Cesky (CHEH-skee).
Yes = Ano (AH-no) and No=Neh
Thus, if someone on the street asks you if you’d like to buy tickets for a concert, have dinner at their restaurant, or exchange foreign money on the street (Uh! don’t do it!! We didn’t, cuz we read not to. Scam!) , it is better to say a direct “No” or “Neh.” If you falter and say “Uh, no” then it sounds like the Cesky “Yes” being “Ano” and confusion ensues.

I am sitting in the morning at the diner on the corner..

We are currently sitting outside at a cafe, Justin drinking a diet Coke (Coke Light), and I am having some hot spiced wine.

The high for today is estimated at 5 C (41 F), low of 0 C (32 F). This cafe has fleece blankets for the customers, draped over the backs of the chairs. That is to say the *blankets* are draped over the chairs, not the customers. In the background is some mixture of Hindi-techno with the Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” mashed up. Pretty upbeat.

There are propane torch heaters to keep us warm(er). I bought a really warm hat, and here’s what else I’m wearing: scarf, gloves, long johns & jeans, socks up to my knees, tank top, T-shirt, long sleeve shirt, quilted vest with fuzzy hood, leather trenchcoat with quilted zip-in lining and I am still cold. I am, however in the Czech Republic in October, no surprise: it’s cold.

Rollin’ down the (Vltava) River…

We went on a dinner cruise on the Vltava River (which the Moldau symphonic piece is written about) and sat at the table with 4 other tourists: Georgi and Tatiana (from Germany) and Juisette and Jeanne (from France). Tatiana could understand some English, but didn’t speak it very well, & Justin and I felt sorry for her not being able to join more freely. Georgi, Juisette, and Jeanne all spoke different levels of English, but much of the conversation was in scattered English and French, to which Georgi and I spoke a little. (je parle tres peu francaise)

It was amusing, because Jeanne wanted to practice her English, and I wanted to practice my French.

I heard and fully understood when she was asking Juisette in French “How do I say ‘I want to travel to Canada’?” (Common dit’on ‘je voudrais voygaer au Canada’?) and I said “I Understand you- yes- Canada.” It has helped in my resolve to pickup learning French because even though we’re in the Czech Republic speaking Czech (well, the locals are, at least), the fact that I knew some French helped in a 3 hour dinner cruise with 4 other strangers.

They were all very nice, and we exchanged contact into. So, should we ever end up in Frankfurt, Germany, or in Nice, France, we’ll have somewhere to stay! Awesome!